Thursday, January 3, 2013

Dubai: An Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood cell, which was unearthed by UAE authorities, was active in recruiting members in the country and collecting sensitive military information that posed serious threat to UAE security, sources said.

Sources in the UAE and Egypt confirmed earlier reports of the arrests of 11 Egyptians, some of whom have been in working in the UAE for more than 20 years as doctors and engineers.

Members of the group has been active “on UAE soil with a defined organisational structure [and] held secret meetings in different areas of the UAE through their so-called ‘administrative offices’ and were recruiting Egyptians residing in the UAE to join the [Muslim Brotherhood] group,” the UAE daily Al Khaleej quoted unnamed sources as saying. [...]

The report in Al Khaleej described the 11 Egyptians as “the leadership” of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood branch in the UAE. Their activities were being monitored and investigated for years, it added.

The members of the cell, the sources explained, had established commercial firms to support their activities in the UAE and were illegally channelling significant amounts to support the mother group in Egypt. [...]

“The investigation also revealed strong ties between this group and the leaders of the [Emirati] secret organisation”, in reference to dozens of UAE Islamists, affiliated with the banned Al Islah Society, who are currently in detention and under investigation on charges of jeopardising national security. Al Islah Society was known for its strong links to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

“There was a regular coordination between the two groups and they held secret meetings. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood group in the UAE also conducted training sessions for the [UAE members, currently in detention] on holding elections and means to overthrow regimes in the Arab states,” the sources explained.

They added that the investigation is expected to uncover “serious plots against the national security of the UAE”, stressing that the list may include “hundreds” of names involved in the Muslim Brotherhood network. “Some of those names have already been put on the travel ban list [and they] will be summoned for questioning.”